The View | Who’s the loser at the other side of a winning bet?

It was a brave Hollywood studio mogul who went for the idea of producing a film where collateralised debt obligations or CDOs and credit default swaps took centre stage.

As a Business section reader you may well be familiar with these terms but it’s a fair bet that the producers were hoping that The Big Short would attract a rather wider audience, and it did.

As many people know, this is the story of a bunch of guys (yup, it’s largely a women-free zone here) who took massive bets on the collapse of the US housing market in 2008 and discovered a way to bet against the financial institutions holding masses of debt that simply could not be repaid.

Initially I had my doubts about watching a cinematic exposition of leveraged finance but friends were raving about it and so, belatedly, I got round to viewing a film that works on so many levels, not least those that provide vital lessons about investing. These lessons were first elaborated in Michael Lewis’ stellar book on which this film is based.

READ MORE: Bankers thrive on culture of greed

First up came a vivid portrayal of the immorality, dishonesty and stupidity of bankers. I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to say that it’s not exactly news to most of us but it was pure joy to see this portrayed in glorious Technicolor, with the benefit of some very slick editing.

However, there is much more to this work, not least the way it delivers a chilling reminder of what happens when the anti-heroes with their complex short positions (i.e. bets on price falls) are finally vindicated and the whole edifice of phoney loans starts to crumble. We see two of the triumphant traders whooping and hi-fiving at this point until one of the more redeeming characters in the film tells them not to forget that for every dollar they are about to make, families will loose their homes, jobs will disappear and economic misery will ensue.